What Happened Last Week?

  When we sent our paperwork off last week, we knew we would have most likely get the official "our paperwork is on a plane to Ethiopia" email on Friday. We could have sat all week pondering whether or not we would get the "all clear" email from our agency. But instead, we stayed super busy.  In these ways (yes this is a lame way of giving you a weekend recap):

Monday/ Tuesday were spent chillaxin (yes, I said that) at home. I have been perfecting the art of pressure cooker meals and we had some good ones this week.  If you haven't been on the Crockin Girls site, you are missing out. And if you have a good recipe for your slow cooker, tell me or I'm missing out. So far, we've tried sausage soups, bloody mary chicken, barbecue chicken sandwiches, beef stew and a delicious taco soup. Can you tell I've been in a soup mood? Tomorrow it's buffalo chicken soup. Mmmm. But seriously, got a good pressure cooker recipe? Send it my way or we're not friends.

Wednesday concluded our semester with the 4th graders.  It was bittersweet for sure. I've loved spending time with them, but God made sure they were all kinds of wound up so I would also remember that rest is good.  I have learned so much in this semester and I hope the kids have learned a little, too.  We trekked through the book of Mark, sure, but I also learned about how to keep things sane in a room of nine and ten year olds. I learned that letting them do popcorn prayer blesses me in a way I never imagined.  And I learned (or re-remembered) that being in fourth grade is hard, too.  All those things we deal with as adults? They deal with them, too. But they don't have our "seasoning" to make them calloused.  Cancer, war, divorce? We tackled all those subjects. I am not a pro on any of them but seeing their hearts impassioned for the kind of justice I, too, crave really made me remember how much we all have in common.

Thursday was all kinds of awesome. If you don't have yourself some good girl friends that can share life with you and make you laugh, sister, get on that STAT. Unless you are a boy. In which case, well, thanks for reading my blog. And find some guy friends, will ya? I digress. Anyway, I am blessed to have several groups of women who bless me in different ways. And on Thursday, I faked several of them out by convincing them I am crafty. Yes, I started two different crafts. Please do not ask me how many I completed. I am not able to share that privileged information. I will show you one in action though. Behold:

Yup, that's a wreath. And I started it. You are welcome for that knowledge. But really, the crafting was fun and inspiring but the conversation was about more than this weepy girl can handle. I laughed. I cried. I laughed til I cried. And when I think I had officially tired out the women (but not finished a single craft--whoops! I let it slip!) I headed back home to the adorbs hubs.

We were on pins and needles Friday because we were told this could be our "date." You know, the date that will define the rest of our adoption.  Our DTE date (dossier to Ethiopia).  I figured we would have to know around noon. So at one, I called to see if something was wrong with our dossier they just hadn't told us about.  The voice on the other end told me not to worry.  But then 4 came (that's 5 agency time--they are east coast) and we heard nothing.  I assumed the worst. Something was wrong and we weren't DTE like I thought we'd be.  Five passed. I was resigned it would be a week or two, depending on their Thanksgiving plans.  Then, at 6:30 we officially got the email: we are DTE. Our package will technically ship Tuesday because of the holiday, but our date is 11/18/11.  Fun times.  We then got to move forward with the fun we had planned for that evening: we went to the Missouri Contemporary Ballet! It was delightful and fascinating and for one second, I felt kind of grown up and proper. If you haven't been to a contemporary ballet production, take thyself. Or thy neighbor. It made me thankful for all the artistic talent in this smallish town.

I know this is getting long. This is what happens when I don't blog for a week.  I will do my best to give you pictures of the rest.  Final game at home. Sad game with no coach. I don't want to talk about it. It's over. And we won!!  Here is my brother, being one part cowboy, one part fan.

And then there's this guy.  He's growing a beard. Again, ladies, he's all mine. You are welcome for the reminder.

I will post about our Sunday adventure at another juncture. It's Christmas related so I may postpone it.

Happy Monday! I hope you are as excited as I am for this short week:).